Village boy Impressions

Very often, I hear people discuss their childhood and teens with nostalgia. They say they didn’t have as many distractions and were less ‘computerized’ and the world was simple and different from today. I don’t think they had as much fun as I had in my time though but maybe I am wrong. In any case, who can tell? We can only tell what we did with our own time before we passed it on to others in their own time. But I think our time was beyond good. It was bliss! If you think I am bluffing, come along with me for a ride….. We were half naked and never liked a bath. When forced to, we bathed only our bellies. We ate zom in the afternoon, Tuo zaafi with ‘wogta’ in the evening and leftovers of these in the morning. We chewed the millet roasted, and the groundnuts raw, dry, fresh, roasted or boiled. We ate Bambara beans, sweet and frafra potatoes, and the garden eggs in their season. We fished in the streams and ponds with hooks, nets, and traps. When the stream dries, we hunt the ...

1.        Don't drive like a lunatic; you’re not the only one in a hurry to go somewhere, and can you please stop tooting the horn? It makes the whole place so noisy! 2.        Learn to buy made in Ghana goods – give the Chinese goods a break!  3.        If you work in the public sector, show up to work on time and whilst there, do real work.  4.        Don't church all week and all year round and hope God will solve your real life problems for you.  5.        Don't look down on everyone who isn’t dressed up in fancy clothes.  6.        If you're a police officer stop asking for and collecting bribes – you’re not the only public servant who’s poorly paid.  7.        If you’re a politician, know that your followers also have heads and hearts ...

1.   Some nights, when the moon is happy  Smiling broadly from its heavenly home.  A small crowd gathers in the yard;  Grandma, mother, aunty and the others  Not forgetting me and three smaller ones.  Akangriba the dog would be present  As is the cat who never quite got a name.  Baba is outside on the dampala [1]  With a neighbour for company   As the age-old ritual is being enacted,  And none can be left out:  A hand reaches into the big bowl  And grabs a handful of groundnuts,  Ka, ka, crack! goes the shells,  Hard-pressed between thumb and index.  Opened shells are clasped in one hand  Or dropped in a calabash nearby  And the ritual is repeated again and again.  Until our fingers ache, we the little ones. 2. Soon we find support in our teeth. A seed or two usually remaining To keep the jaws busy and sleep at bay. When this becomes too frequent, We earn a...